Govt moves to bring sanity in chrome mining

The government is moving in to bring sanity in the allocation of 22 700 hectares of chrome claims to small scale miners and chrome smelters as a way of boosting production of the mineral.

The chrome claims released to government by Zimasco in February had created confusion within the mining sector following the disregard of procedures by some unscrupulous miners who had grabbed most part of the claims.

This has forced government to swiftly intervene considering that miners were supposed to get 10 000 hectares, with eight smelting firms expected to get 7 000 hectares while government will hold 5 700 hectares for future development.

According to sources within the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, instead of getting their 10 000 hectares allocation miners are believed to have grabbed all the 22 700 hectares of chrome claims shutting out government and smelting companies at the same time defeating the whole process.

The allocation of chrome mining claims without evicting miners has become the ministry of mines and mining development officials’ major headache.

Sources say among the eight smelters set to benefit from the chrome claims, two firms have already imported the smelting equipment which is expected anytime into the country.

Smelting firms will be allocated claims according to their contribution to overall mineral output for last year to ensure transparency.

Zimbabwe has the second largest chrome deposits in the world with Zimasco and ZimAlloys having owned 80 percent of chrome deposits.